The present invention relates to furnishings, and in particular to a furniture system that is particularly adapted to support group activities in open plans, and the like.
Open office plans are well known in the art, and generally comprise large, open floor spaces in a building that are furnished in a manner that is readily reconfigurable to accommodate the ever changing needs of a specific user, as well as the divergent requirements of different tenants. One arrangement typically used for furnishing open plans includes movable partition panels that are detachably interconnected to partition off the open space into individual workstations and/or offices. Some such partition panels are configured to receive hang-on furniture units, such as worksurfaces, overhead cabinets, shelves, etc., and are generally known in the office furniture industry as "systems furniture." Another arrangement for dividing and/or partitioning open plans includes modular furniture arrangements in which a plurality of differently shaped, freestanding furniture units are interconnected in a side-by-side relationship, with upstanding privacy screens attached to at least some of the furniture units to create individual, distinct workstations and/or offices.
Such prior art partitioning arrangements create relatively permanent, multifunction workstations for the users, which workstations are required to support both individual work activities, as well as some types of group activities, such as inter-office conferences, and the like. However, these types of conventional workstation arrangements are not particularly adapted to support workers engaged in group work, such as self-managing teams, or others involved in team problem solving techniques, wherein a relatively large number of workers from different disciplines, such as engineering, design, manufacturing, sales, marketing, purchasing, finance, etc., meet together as a group to define and review issues, set general policy, and then break out into a number of smaller sub-groups or individuals to resolve those specific problems relating to their particular discipline. Team projects typically have a rather specific objective and are of a limited duration, such that the individual workers are temporarily assigned to the group for the life of the project, and are then reassigned to a new group when the project is completed. Group work is steadily gaining importance as a way of improving productivity and time-to-market, thereby emphasizing the need to support such activities more efficiently and effectively.
Conventional conference rooms, meeting halls, and the like have heretofore been required to handle such group meetings, but are typically expensive to construct and maintain, and are not usually considered an efficient use of space in open plan environments. When such conventional rooms are constructed in rented office space, they become permanent leasehold improvements, which must be depreciated over a lengthy time period, and can not be readily removed upon the expiration of the lease. The reconfiguration of such spaces is quite messy, and very disruptive to conducting day-to-day business. Furthermore, with conventional conference room arrangements, breakout meetings among the various sub-groups of workers often prove inconvenient, since the workstations of the participant workers are seldom located in close proximity to the conference room.
Another objective of furnishings from modern office environments is to promote the establishment of an optimum balance between worker privacy and worker interaction. Throughout a given workday, an office worker normally oscillates between interaction with others and time spent alone. Each such worker actively seeks out or avoids others based upon their ever changing task, objectives, and goals. Furnishings can serve to help these workers better regulate involvement with or isolation from coworkers. For example, full height offices are known for privacy. Their surrounding walls and door provide privacy by consistently controlling unwanted distractions, but often limit opportunities for spontaneous interaction. On the other hand, open offices precipitate an awareness of coworkers. Furniture and partition based workstations encourage participation and convenient access, but often lack sufficient controls for individual quiet work. Both private workspace and convenient access to coworkers for the completion of work involving group or team efforts is quite important to the overall success of such projects.
The use of displays to communicate information to large groups in office environments and the like, is also generally well-known, and includes such devices as marker boards, tackable surfaces, electronic displays, reflective projector screens, etc. Such displays are normally incorporated into conventional style conference rooms, meeting halls, and other similar facilities. However, as previously noted, such conventional meeting spaces are typically expensive, and are not usually considered a cost effective use of floor space in most modern offices. Rather, modern office layouts are typically of the open plan type, and do not include large, conventional types of conference rooms.
Information displays in modern, open plan workstations, such as those created by movable partition panels, modular furniture, or the like, are usually quite limited, and not particularly adapted to support workers engaged in group or team problem solving techniques. Due to the inherent nature of group problem solving techniques, the effective display of information is quite important to the effective management of the team's human resources.
Office space users are experiencing increasing needs for improved utilities support at each workstation or work setting. These "utilities," as the term is used herein, encompass all types of resources that may be used to support or service a worker, such as communications and data used with computers and other types of data processors, telecommunications, electronic displays, electrical power, and physical accommodations, such as lighting, signage, security, sound masking, and the like. For example, modern offices for highly skilled "knowledge workers" such as engineers, accountants, stock brokers, computer programs, etc., are typically provided with multiple pieces of very specialized computer and communications equipment that are capable of processing information from numerous local and remote data sources to assist in solving complex problems. Such equipment has very stringent power and signal requirements, and must quickly and efficiently interface with related equipment at both adjacent and remote locations. Many other types of high technology equipment and facilities are also presently being developed which will need to be accommodated in the workplaces of the future.
In order to gain increased efficiency in the use of expensive office real estate, attempts are now being made to try to support highly paid knowledge workers with modular furniture systems in open office settings, instead of conventional private offices. However, in order to ensure peak efficiency of such knowledge workers, the work settings must be equipped with the various state-of-the-art utilities and facilities. Since such work settings must be readily reconfigurable to effectively meet the ever-changing needs of the user, the distribution and control of utilities throughout a comprehensive open office plan has emerged as a major challenge to the office furniture industry. The inherent nature of modular furniture system, which permits them to be readily reconfigurable into different arrangements, makes it very difficult to achieve adequate utility distribution and control.
Hence, utility distribution and control are fast becoming one of the major issues in office fit-out and furniture. Changing technology is creating greater demands on power and signal distribution networks. Routing power and signal distribution below the floor or in furniture systems often ends up in complex idiosyncratic systems which are difficult to manage or change. There is presently an oversupply of office space and furniture systems which do not properly respond to or support change. Many older buildings do not have adequate utility capabilities and the cost of conventional renovations or improvements often renders the same in practice. Even relatively new buildings can quickly be rendered obsolete by the fast paced changes in modern technology. The refurnishing of existing building space is therefore a concern which must be addressed by furniture systems.